Samia Henni
BArch, MArch (USI-AAM), PhD (ETH Zurich)
![Samia Henni Samia Henni](/architecture/files/architecture/styles/medium_focal__220_x_220_/public/samia_henni_9737_photo_by_andrea_avezzu_courtesy_la_biennale_di_venezia_0.jpg?itok=a4Fy9wOY)
B. Arch., M.Arch. (USI-AAM), Ph.D. in History and Theory of Architecture (ETH Zurich)
Samia Henni is a historian of the built, destroyed and imagined environments. She is the author of the multi-award-winning Architecture of Counterrevolution: The French Army in Northern Algeria (gta Verlag 2017, 2022, EN; Editions B42, 2019, FR), which received the 2020 Spiro Kostof Book Award from the Society of Architectural Historians, and Colonial Toxicity: Rehearsing French Radioactive Architecture and Landscape in the Sahara (If I Can鈥檛 Dance, Framer Framed, edition fink, 2024), and the editor of Deserts Are Not Empty (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2022) and War Zones (gta Verlag, 2018). She is also the maker of exhibitions, such as Performing Colonial Toxicity (Framer Framed, If I Can鈥檛 Dance, Amsterdam; gta Exhibitions, Zurich; The Mosaic Rooms, London, 2023鈥04), Discreet Violence: Architecture and the French War in Algeria (Zurich, Rotterdam, Berlin, Johannesburg, Paris, Prague, Ithaca, Philadelphia, Charlottesville, 2017鈥22), Archives: Secret-D茅fense? (ifa Gallery, SAVVY Contemporary, Berlin, 2021), and Housing Pharmacology (Manifesta 13, Marseille, 2020).
She received her Ph.D. in the history and theory of architecture (with distinction, ETH Medal) from ETH Zurich and has taught at Princeton University, ETH Zurich, the University of Zurich, Geneva University of Art and Design, and Cornell University. Samia was an invited tutor (June鈥揓uly 2023) at the first-ever Biennale College Architettura 2023 at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition at Venice Architecture Biennale, the inaugural Albert Hirschman Chair (2020鈥21) at the Institute of Advanced Study in Marseille, a Geddes Fellow (2021) at Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, a member (2020鈥23) of the Board of Directors of the Society of Architectural Historians, and an invited Visiting Professor (2023鈥24) at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta), ETH Zurich. Currently she is the co-chair of the University Seminar 鈥淏eyond France鈥 at Columbia University, and a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Architecture; field: journal; Descamino; Manazir; Tamazgha Studies Journal, and of the Academic Board of the African Futures Institute. In the fall of 2024, Samia joined the faculty of 平特五不中鈥檚 Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture